


somebody tell me why i work so hard for you

by stefonzolesky



Category: Arrested Development
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 08:48:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14398527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stefonzolesky/pseuds/stefonzolesky
Summary: Tony smiles, and fuck him, fuck this, fuck everything.





	somebody tell me why i work so hard for you

After Cinco, Gob Bluth sends himself into a downwards spiral. He’s fired by his mother a week after he starts at his new job, and most of the time he’s waking up in someone else’s bed. He quickly becomes used to it, and he gives up on his pills because they’ve only caused pain and heartbreak and he finally understands what it’s like to be the one that gets forgotten. His stomach twists with guilt every time he thinks about going for them. It hurts to think about how the girls he slept with must have felt.

He still doesn’t know why Tony chose to forget. That makes him feel more ashamed than he already was -- Tony was too embarrassed to remember Cinco. Granted, so was Gob, but he was still the one that remembered, and Tony was still the one who forgot.

Eventually, he confides in Michael. It goes just about as well as he’d expected, with Michael acting all smug the entire time, like his advice is the best advice that anyone could ever give in the history of giving advice. Stupid, smug Michael.

Michael runs a hand through his hair, exasperated at Gob for insisting that he not be “so fucking smug,” and instead settles on spouting some actual advice.

 

“You can’t keep kissing strangers and pretending that it’s him,” He says.

 

Gob, of course, disregards this advice he so nicely asked for in favor of a bottle of vodka that Lindsay probably left lying around once she finally got it through her head that it didn’t go bad once it was opened. 

Michael rolls his eyes, watching Gob drink the vodka. “You can’t just ask me for advice if you don’t want it, you know.”

“I don’t know.” Gob wipes his mouth with his sleeve. “I think I just needed to tell someone.”

“You should listen to me,” Michael tells him. Of course that’s what he thinks. “Because you’re just gonna spiral further if you don’t.”

“Bullshit,” Gob says. “I know how to take care of myself.”

Michael raises an eyebrow. He takes the bottle of vodka from Gob, smells it, and scrunches up his nose while he puts it away. “Listen,” He tries to reason. “If you won’t call him, I will.”

“Michael, no--” Gob blurts, but Michael is already pulling up Tony’s assistant’s number.

He gestures for Gob to be quiet. “I’m doing this for your own-- Yes, hi, uh, is there any way I can get my hands on Tony Wonder’s personal number?” Pause. “No, I know. It’s a personal emergency.” Pause. “It’s urgent, I swear-- Yeah, uh-huh. Michael Bluth. Gob’s brother” Another pause. “He’ll recognize the names.” He sends a glance to Gob. “Uh-huh. Tell him to call me back.” Pause. “Yeah. Thanks.” He hangs up, and then stuffs his phone in his pocket. “She said that he’ll call me.”

Gob swears under his breath. “Why do you always feel like you need to take charge of my life? I’m your older brother, and I can handle myself perfectly well.”

“You obviously can’t,” Michael points out, and Gob hardly wants to believe him, but he might be right. Just this time. And Michael has  _ never _ been right before as far as Gob is concerned, so this must be a big deal for him.

Gob sighs. “Fine. I’ll talk to him.”

Michael nods. “I know you will. Is that all you needed help with?”

“I…” Gob shrugs helplessly. “I’m going down, Mike. I lost control.”

“So I’ve heard,” Michael says. “Mom told me I needed to get you help. She showed me all the times you’ve been in the paper or in articles online, just this month.”

“And you didn’t try to help?” Gob laughs, and it comes out like his throat is shutting. “Some brother you are.”

“Hey!” Michael objects. “I’ve had a lot on my plate, alright? What, with Buster’s trial, and my girlfriend being my son’s girlfriend, and that whole seven-hundred-thousand dollars in debt thing? I haven’t exactly had much time to sort out your problems for you.”

Gob rolls his eyes and reaches for the bottle of vodka again. Michael doesn’t stop him, only watching with vague disappointment in his face as Gob chugs.

  
  


When Michael arranges a meeting between Gob and Tony, Gob finds himself more nervous than he’s been in his whole life. It’s… weird. It makes him feel like his feet aren’t steady on the ground.

Tony sits down next to him at the bar. “I have a meeting in an hour,” He says, all business. It’s weird that he’s being so professional. “What did… what do you want to talk about?”

“My brother--” Gob starts, but he cuts himself off, because ‘my brother’ is never a good way to start a conversation about your romantic and-or relationship with someone. “What do you remember from Cinco?”

Tony hesitates. “I was with Sally Sitwell,” He admits. “She… she kept talking about using you to further Lucille Austero’s campaign. I don’t know why she’s in charge, now, but she still wants me to… she wants me to use you even more, now. I told her that I wouldn’t do it. She tried to drug me yesterday.”

“She tried to drug you?” Gob raises an eyebrow. Something about the events of the night just… doesn’t add up right.

Tony shrugs. “Yeah. Happens sometimes. Most of the time, she doesn’t actually do it, so I don’t know why she keeps trying.”

The conversation goes… smoothly, or as smooth as it could possibly go. Tony expresses his discomfort with the way Gob stood him up, even if that isn’t what happened. They agree to reschedule for a week later.

 

Gob goes back to the model home with an air of confidence about him. He relays the conversation to Michael, a smile on his face, and Michael stares at him blankly.

“What?” Gob insists, his smile falling. “What is it?”

“Something about that doesn’t seem weird to you?” Michael inquires. “Like the fact that Sally drugged him? Maybe she was the one who force-fed him a pill on Cinco.”

Then, it clicks in Gob’s head. “I figured it out!” He grins. “Sally was the one who force-fed Tony a pill on Cinco!”

“That’s what I just…” Michael sighs. “Nevermind. Yeah, Gob. You figured it out. Good job.”

Gob grins and fumbles for his phone, quickly dialing Tony’s number, and before Tony can get out a full “Hello?” Gob is shouting, “Tony, I figured it out! You  _ don’t _ hate me!”

There’s an awkward silence. “...Yeah, obviously not. Listen, I’m kind of busy right now, but--”

“--right, yeah.” Gob grimaces, sparing a glance at Michael, who is staring at him, bored. “Call me back when you aren’t busy?”

Tony hesitates. “Okay, I will.” He pauses. “Bye, Gob.”

“Bye, Tony,” Gob fires back, grinning. “Love you.” He hangs up, and then immediately realizes what he said as he locks eyes with his brother. “Fuck.”

Michael raises an eyebrow. “Bye, Tony,” He repeats mockingly. “Love you.”

“Shut up,” Gob mutters as he pockets his phone. “It was an accident.”

“Mhm, yeah,” Michael says off-handedly. “So, he’s gonna call you back?”

“Yeah,” Gob confirms, suddenly flooding with nerves once again. “How do you think he’s gonna take it?”

“I don’t know,” Michael admits. “It could go a lot of different ways. You should just hope for the best.”

Gob stares at Michael. “Right, like I’m gonna… Guy in the… tells me to hope for the best. Like I’m-- I’m gonna… hope for the best. Why would I hope for-- for the worst?” He laughs, but it sounds strangled. “Stupid… dumb… stupid Michael.”

Michael grimaces and claps his brother on the shoulder. “You can handle this,” He says, but Gob doesn’t really believe him.

 

Tony calls back at eight o’clock at night.

“Sorry,” is the first thing he says. “I was really busy today, and I couldn’t--”

“Sally drugged you,” Gob interrupts, because he can’t hold on to that fact for much longer. It’s tearing him apart and he just has to --  _ has to -- _ blurt it out.

There’s a dead silence on the other end. Gob can hear Tony shifting.

“What?” He finally asks. Gob’s chest tightens.

“Sally drugged you,” He repeats. “On Cinco de Cuatro. She drugged you.”

Tony is quiet. He coughs into the receiver. “Can we talk about this in person?”

 

So, they talk about it in person. Gob explains what happened on Cinco, how they slept together, how Michael caught them. He explains how Tony forgot all of it, and how Gob assumed he took a forget-me-now. Tony listens to every syllable out of Gob’s mouth, questions dancing on his lips but never taking the jump into forming. 

 

“We really did all of that?” Is the first thing Tony manages to ask. 

Gob just bites down his words and nods. He doesn’t trust himself to speak, and either way, his tongue feels swollen and dry. Like a welcome mat.

Tony’s face is swimming with emotions that Gob thinks he’ll never be able to identify.

Gob takes a shaky breath and decides to  _ man up, _ and  _ be fucking honest. _

“I totally get it,” He says, voice shaking. “If you don’t want anything to do with me. But I kind of felt like a person that night, until my brother came home, at least. So if you’d ever want to… I don’t know. You get where I’m going with this, right?”

“Kind of.”

Tony smiles, and fuck him, fuck this, fuck everything because his smile is so  _ nice _ and it makes Gob feel all warm and fuzzy in a way he’s never felt before. He sighs heavily.

“If you’re fucking with me, I swear to god.” His voice is low, quiet, nervous.

Tony laughs. “Gob, I’m not fucking with you.”

Gob nods slowly. “So… we’re still on for next week?”

Tony shifts a little, and are his cheeks kind of pink? Maybe Gob is just seeing things.

“Yeah,” He finally says. “Of course we are.”


End file.
